Led by Christina E. Chavarria

About Christina: Christina Chavarría is a Program Manager in the William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which she joined in December 2006. Christina currently runs the Community of Holocaust Education Centers (CHEC) program and works with 77 Holocaust organizations around the country. She is also part of a team overseeing the Museum’s implementation of HR 943, the Never Again Education Act, federal legislation that implements Holocaust education around the US. Christina has represented the Museum in Europe, Latin America, Japan, Israel, and across the United States. Previously, Christina served as Director of Education at Holocaust Museum Houston for six and a half years, and prior to that, she was a high school English teacher in El Paso, Texas, her city of birth.

William Levine Family Institute for Holocaust Education United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Led by Kim Klett & Ashley Crose

About the speakers:

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About Kim: Kim Klett taught English at Dobson High School since 1991 and recently retired.  There, she developed a semester-long Holocaust Literature course, which she began teaching in 2000, and is now year-long. She also teachers an introductory class on Holocaust history at Scottsdale Community College.  Klett is involved in Holocaust education through her work as a Museum Teacher Fellow ('03) with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, a board member of the Phoenix Holocaust Association, a Teacher Ambassador for Defiant Requiem, and a Senior Facilitator for Echoes & Reflections.  In her role as deputy executive director with the Educators' Institute for Human Rights, she has worked with teachers in Bosnia and other post-conflict societies.  She was also a Carl Wilkens Fellow in 2010.

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About Ashley: Ashley Crose is a National Board-Certified Teacher as well as a 2022 Arizona Education Association Top 10 Teacher and Semifinalist for State Teacher of the Year. He was also the 2020 Scottsdale Charro’s Teacher of the Year and the 2019 Daughters of the American Revolution Outstanding Teacher of American History. In addition, Ashley is a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Teacher Fellow class of 2020.  He also serves on NAU’s AZK12 Center’s Teacher Solutions Team and is a member of their Board of Directors and he currently teaches AP World History, AP Government and Holocaust/Genocide Studies at Saguaro High in Scottsdale Arizona. Ashley is also the recipient of the 2024 Gilder Lehrman Arizona History Teacher of the Year.

Provided free of cost.

Led by Leslie Kornreich Feldman, Sheryl Bronkesh and Rise Stillman

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About the speakers:

About Leslie: Motivated by a deep connection to her grandparents who were Holocaust survivors, Leslie Kornreich Feldman began her career in Washington, D.C. at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum where she worked in the Survivor Affairs division and for the Committee on Conscience. Since moving back home to Phoenix, she has worked for educational institutions in event planning and fundraising, as a Foundation Director, and an Alumni Director. She has also taught a high school course on Comparative Genocide. She is the first Executive Director of the Phoenix Holocaust Association. Leslie graduated Magna Cum Laude from Washington University in St. Louis with a degree in History. Her research focused on Modern Central Europe and the Holocaust. Her honors thesis brought to light the failures of the American Jewish community to assist Holocaust survivors in their resettlement upon the initial years after their immigration. She received her master’s degree in social work from Arizona State University. Leslie has shared her grandparents’ wartime experiences on many platforms, including CNN’s piece commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. She and her husband, Andrew, are the proud parents of two daughters, Tyler and Olivia, who are the first 4Gs in their family. 

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About Sheryl: Sheryl Bronkesh is president of the Phoenix Holocaust Association and the daughter of two Holocaust survivors. She also serves on the advisory board of the Martin-Springer Institute at NAU and previously chaired the Community Advisory Board for ASU's Genocide Awareness Week.  Additionally, Sheryl was instrumental in the passage of a bill mandating Holocaust and genocide education in all Arizona middle and high schools. Before retirement, she served as president of a healthcare marketing research firm and conducted research with physicians across the country and internationally. Sheryl holds an MBA from ASU and an undergraduate degree from American University. 

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About Rise: Rise Stillman is a Holocaust survivor and Phoenix Holocaust Association vice president. Rise, born in 1930, was the fourth child in a family of six children from Velke Komyaty in what was then Czechoslovakia. In 1942, after Hungary took over the area, life became more difficult. In late 1943, Rise went to a nearby town to assist a relative who had suffered a hip injury. Soon afterward, Rise, and her cousins were taken by SS officers to a ghetto. Rise would not see most of her immediate family again. In 1944, Rise was packed into cattle cars and when the train stopped at Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, she was separated from her relatives and never saw them again. At Auschwitz, her hair was shorn, a number was tattooed on her arm, and she was given a prison uniform. Shortly afterwards she was selected to dig trenches in Krakow. In October 1944, she was taken to Bergen Belsen to work in a potato field. One of Rise’s last assignments was working in an underground munitions factory in a salt mine. After liberation in May 1945, Rise was taken to Sweden to recuperate. In 1948, she emigrated to the U.S., where she moved to Ohio, married an American, and had a son. After her husband died, Rise moved to Arizona to be closer to her son. It is only recently that Rise has begun to tell her story of survival during the Holocaust.

Led by Carl Wilkens, Rescuer during the Rwandan Genocide

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About the Keynote: The US Embassy ordered Carl and Teresa Wilkens to evacuate Rwanda along with thousands of other expatriates and UN soldiers. They chose not to obey. Teresa did take their children to safety however Carl stayed throughout the 3-month genocide. While witnessing the horrors of more than one million innocent people being slaughtered, he worked with Rwandan colleagues to rescue and bring aid to those targeted for extermination. Wilkens will be exploring stories from this time as well as the 30-year journey since. He will be focusing specifically on what “the role of accompanying” looks like during times of great violence as well as healing.

Watch Carl Wilkens' film "I'm Not Leaving"